"Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

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ShogunRua
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"Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by ShogunRua »

Most professional film reviewers are irritating idiots who don't know jack shit about movies. And that's if we're being generous; many are just blatant shills for the studios.

However, there are many amateur reviewers, and once in a blue moon, I find someone that I like. That doesn't mean I agree with them on everything, or even most things (!), but it does mean they have a genuinely interesting perspective, some knowledge of film, and are entertaining.

For instance, I have always loved The Filthy Critic. The reviewers are funny, and even though I disagree a lot, it comes from the right place. Also, I recently learned that Red Letter Media, which did the popular Star Wars modern trilogy reviews, have a pretty cool show called Half in the Bag.

The reviews are long, and thus, there's sometimes a tendency to beat a dead horse. This occasionally gets to the point where they criticize elements of the picture which are no longer actual flaws. That being said, it's cogent, generally intelligent, and frequently funny.

Honestly, that's about it. There are a few other amateur reviewers I used to enjoy but eventually became disillusioned with, but that's what I like nowadays.

Focus-

Who are some of your favorite amateur online reviewers?

Jerky
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by Jerky »

I love Half in the Bag and Plinkett's Reviews from Red Letter Media. I was just thinking to myself, yesterday in fact, if there were any other video reviews as interesting as those. I've never heard of the Filthy Critic, so I'll check that out.

The Star Wars reviews are awesome, if you're up for a 70 minute review...of each of the prequels. Plinkett's review of "Baby's Day Out" just killed me!

I bookmarked a site called Cinema Cool awhile ago. They have some interesting reviews, but of older "cool" and cult films. Worth a look in my opinion. http://cinemacoolshow.com/CinemaCool/Cinema_Cool.html
Last edited by Jerky on Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

TheDenizen
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by TheDenizen »

Alex Smits is good. No nonsense reviews and he covers a lot of the foreign action films I like. I've watched a bunch of great movies based off of a positive review of his.

http://alex-in-wonderland.com/MovieReviews/MovieReviews.html

CMonster
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by CMonster »

Major ditto to everything by Red Letter Media. They are really the only reason I was willing to watch Cowboys and Aliens which turned into probably the biggest surprise of the summer for me. I also like Escape to the Movies with Movie Bob for the escapist. While I find myself disagreeing with him on occasion, he always provides a good reasoning for why he likes or dislikes a film. Aside from those two I generally avoid film critics because there is so often a variety of opinions it is better to watch them film myself or look at people I follow on criticker and see what they have to say.

prowler
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by prowler »

ShogunRua

MmzHrrdb
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by MmzHrrdb »

i think you're too hard on film critics dude. most of them have seen far more movies than the average film buff, actually know people from the industry, etc and are generally just more knowledgeable. i mean it really is impossible for me to champion some random dude with a blog over people like Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr etc

ShogunRua
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by ShogunRua »

Jerky wrote:I bookmarked a site called Cinema Cool awhile ago. They have some interesting reviews, but of older "cool" and cult films. Worth a look in my opinion. http://cinemacoolshow.com/CinemaCool/Cinema_Cool.html


Good shit, thanks. That is definitely the best style with which to examine schlocky cinema.

TheDenizen wrote:Alex Smits is good. No nonsense reviews and he covers a lot of the foreign action films I like. I've watched a bunch of great movies based off of a positive review of his.

http://alex-in-wonderland.com/MovieRevi ... views.html


When I first saw the site, I thought I went back in time to the Internet circa 2000! The release date of certain films was the only thing that contradicted this notion. That being said, it looks like a good site to get some quick recommendations from.

CMonster wrote:I also like Escape to the Movies with Movie Bob for the escapist.


He epitomizes everything that sucks about most Internet reviewers. He knows very little about film and has watched few quality pictures. He focuses solely on modern, crappy, big-budget Hollywood releases, but unlike Half in a Bag (who do the same), is insanely pretentious about it.

That would be fine, if anything he had to say was even remotely intelligent or funny. But he doesn't. Instead, he makes the same banal observations that any sentient 12 year old can. Again, contrast that to Half in a Bag, who come up with interesting and original observations in their reviews. However, Movie Bob thinks he's King Shit of Turd Mountain. I wasn't remotely surprised that he also uses his movie review show to pontificate about his political beliefs. (The tell-tale sign of a blowhard)

Basically, Movie Bob is as douchy, irritating, and stupid as any pretentious professional film critic, except for the whole "watching good films" part.

While I dislike a lot of artsy film critics, at least most of them have had the decency to see truly great pictures by the likes of Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kurosawa, Bunuel, etc. Movie Bob doesn't even had that small saving grace.

green man wrote:i think you're too hard on film critics dude. most of them have seen far more movies than the average film buff, actually know people from the industry, etc and are generally just more knowledgeable. i mean it really is impossible for me to champion some random dude with a blog over people like Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr etc


I haven't read those three in particular (or if I did, I forgot their names), but I think a lot of people on this forum have seen more films (and generally better ones), write better, and are funnier and more intelligent than most crappy professional shills.

These are the same assholes that were falling over themselves to praise Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as the great cinematic masterpiece of modern times, and better than any of the original Star Wars films. (Not that Star Wars movies are some great masterpiece to begin with, but relatively speaking...)

TheDenizen
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Re: "Amateur" Film Reviewers You Like

Post by TheDenizen »

ShogunRua wrote:
TheDenizen wrote:Alex Smits is good. No nonsense reviews and he covers a lot of the foreign action films I like. I've watched a bunch of great movies based off of a positive review of his.

http://alex-in-wonderland.com/MovieRevi ... views.html

When I first saw the site, I thought I went back in time to the Internet circa 2000! The release date of certain films was the only thing that contradicted this notion. That being said, it looks like a good site to get some quick recommendations from.

Yeah I agree that Alex's site isn't much to look at, old HTML style...but it's the content I'm interested in. The fact that he has a subsection devoted to reviews of "Girls with Guns" movies makes me a happy camper :P

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